NASA Celebrates Meditation #InternationalDayofYoga

The space shuttle is a global symbol of man’s potential for great exploration and thirst for knowledge of the unknown.

What launches the shuttle?

One could say it is the giant engine, the fiery gas emitting huge clouds of smoke that we see during every televised launch. Looking a little deeper though, the real thrust behind the space program is the quiet fire of the human heart. To conceive space flight, a group of engineers and scientists had to come together and believe within their hearts that it could be done. They would work for years, creating infrastructure for a seemingly impossible project. They had to have faith that it could be done.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), recognizes and honors the importance of yogic practice. In celebrating Raja Yoga, we celebrate the human spirit that brought forth the international space program. Each year this highly secure and private organization opens its doors to a special event where we sit on the lawn in front of the space shuttle to meditate.

Meditation allows us to access the potential of the human mind and heart, fueling us with the creativity and passion for making the seemingly impossible into reality. When a person first starts meditation, many times it is out of a similar faith. There is just a spark, that feels like there is more to one’s existence, than meets the eye. That same thirst for discovery is there, this time for the inner universe.

Just like the space shuttle, there is a certain amount of energy a person has to put in before they start seeing proof that meditation is working. The mind has to reach an escape velocity – a speed that can send it outside of the gravitational force of worldly thoughts and free it to feel something profound. After that, a seeker no longer has doubts that indeed there is more to his or her own existence. From that point onward, there is a shift in perspective that leads to further discoveries within one’s own life-laboratory.

Heartfulness meditation offers that scientific approach to spirituality. It has methods that can be tried and tested for us to rely on our own experiences.

The Heartfulness Institute has its origins in Raja Yoga which is the noblest among yogas and teaches meditation. On the International Day of Yoga, meditation sessions will be held in front of many historical landmarks like the Tower Bridge in London and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

International Day of Yoga is celebrated by the Consulate General of India at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

This year, on June 21st, as NASA welcomes the hundreds of seekers dedicated to yoga on International Day of Yoga, members of Heartfulness Institute would be among them. With a magnificent space shuttle in the background, we will sit quietly with our eyes closed on that lawn, conceiving yet another era of human exploration.

Heartfulness returns you to the place where you are innocent and most vulnerable. It takes you to a time when you are not capable, nor responsible of perceiving good or evil. It returns you to a space before the muddled confusion and chaos in society, or as we call it, “the real world.” Heartfulness happens in the spaces before thoughts are even concrete. It is before inhalation of breath, before I, the ego.